Caught in the Act
by usernamealwaystaken
Summary: Jaspidemption. Jasper is stressed about her new living conditions and Peridot tries to help in the best way she knows how.


Is this what it had come to? Thousands of years waging interplanetary wars, working for the greatest in the galaxy; all reduced to living a domestic life in a human barn. Granted, she was happy that at least Peridot was there. At least there was someone here who didn't hate her guts. After more than a year of constant struggling, it would be nice to have some peace.

"And then Paulette had the audacity to push Pierre into the lake! If the camp counselors didn't step in they would've been at each other's throats. Naturally, Pierre would have won, though."

Some peace, any at all, would be nice. Jasper had been looking at Peridot with a half-lidded gaze for about an hour now, hoping that she would get the hint and leave her alone. She had paper strewn about with all sort of diagrams, dotted lines, and walls of text. The whole fuss was apparently about some show for human adolescents about a strange camping facility. Honestly, Jasper couldn't care less and this could not go on any longer.

"Peridot, I really don't care about any of this."

"But… I didn't even get to the part where Percy –"

Jasper put her hands on her head. "I don't care about Percy, or Paula or whatever the hell her name is! I just want to be left alone!" Jasper stormed off and ended up kicking some of Peridot's charts away in her haste. A part of her felt bad for treating her that way, but she seriously couldn't take it anymore. She deserved time away from all this. Peridot looked on as Jasper made her way to the upper level of the barn and situated herself on the couch. With a huff, she grabbed all her Camp Pining Hearts headcanons and stormed off as well. She didn't need her anyway. Maybe Lapis would be a better audience.

Jasper sighed and tried to fit herself onto the flimsy couch. No matter which way she tried, her huge body wouldn't fit. Resisting the urge to throw it out of the giant gaping hole in the barn, she flopped onto the floor, using the couch behind her as an armrest. It seemed she finally found her comfort zone, except for whatever the hell was underneath her butt. She retrieved a strange black rectangle from underneath herself with an assortment of buttons, one of which was a big red button labeled 'power'. Memories of Peridot telling her NOT to push the big red button on the ship came flooding back to her. In true Jasper fashion, she pressed it.

"It's the color war, Paulette –"

Oh my stars not this again. So this garbage is what so thoroughly interested Peridot to the point of fanaticism. Jasper tried to press another button on the remote, but her fingers were too big to control it properly. Resigning herself to her fate, Jasper groaned, tossed the remote onto the couch, and watched. Not because she was interested or anything, just because she wanted to know why Peridot was so worked up over this.

Meanwhile, Peridot was returning to the barn. Lapis hadn't been a much better audience, but at least she feigned interest. As she pushed open the large barn doors, she heard a familiar sound. She could recognize those voices anywhere; she had it memorized. It was Pierre and Percy when they first met! Peridot ran upstairs to find Jasper watching one of the most iconic episodes of CPH of all time! The very first one!

Jasper was so completely engrossed in the episode that she didn't even notice Peridot walk right up to the TV until she slapped down her headcanon sheets with a loud 'thwap!'. Jasper flinched (only a little bit) and grabbed the remote. She tried to turn the TV off but only succeeded in raising the volume. Peridot watched with an amused smirk as she leaned casually against it.

"You like Camp Pining Hearts, don't you Jasper?" she asked, the shit-eating grin still plastered on her face.

Jasper looked away. "No! I don't like it, I just don't think it's as stupid as I thought it would be." She held out the remote to Peridot. "Turn it off?"

Peridot took the remote in her smaller hands and turned the volume down first to make sure it didn't startle her later, and then turned it off. She then picked up her headcanon sheets and opened her mouth to start another explanation, but quickly shut it. Jasper didn't want to hear it anyway. Jasper looked at her notes, then at her dejected expression. Her expression softened for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Peri, listen." Jasper said, pulling Peridot onto her lap. "Sorry for what I said earlier. This is just… a lot to take in. This place sure as hell isn't Homeworld and in case you haven't noticed, no one here gives a shit whether I live or die."

Peridot held onto one of Jasper's hands. "I thought the exact same thing when I first got here. I felt entirely on my own, like I just had to lay low until someone got me out of this mess. But then I had Steven. He was the only one who showed any support. And then, the rest of the gems came around to me." She took this time to turn and look Jasper in her eyes. "This wasn't easy, and everything you know changes. But you have me, and you have Steven. You do have people who like and support you."

Peridot ended her little speech with a hug that could not actually wrap all the way around her buff gem friend, but it was a hug nonetheless. Jasper couldn't help the smile that came to her face and hugged back. They stayed like that for a little while until Jasper turned her attention back to the sheets of paper that Peridot had left on the ground. She picked one up and examined it.

"So, what is this "color war" anyway?"

Like a bullet out of a gun, Peridot shot up and grabbed the paper out of Jasper's hand. She ran on all fours to her pile a haphazardly spread them out all around her.

"Well, I don't want to spoil you too much on what happened, but the color war is only the major driving force of the entire show! Allow me to explain –"

Jasper sat back and watched the tiny green gem practically hurl herself across the room in an attempt to explain how 'cool' this show was. Jasper could tell she'll be here a while, but it was worth it.


End file.
